Exploring The Columbus Blue Jackets' Options Without Elvis Merzlikins

There was already a lot of concern about the state of the Columbus Blue Jackets after an overly dramatic summer.

Now they've suffered yet another third-act twist, as goaltender Elvis Merzlikins unexpectedly had surgery last week to deal with a shoulder injury, and is now out indefinitely.

"Elvis informed us a few weeks ago that he was experiencing some discomfort in his shoulder during his offseason workouts," GM Don Waddell said in the team's press release.

"Following an MRI, it was determined that surgery was the best course of action.  He'll be evaluated again in a few weeks at which time we'll have a clearer idea on when he will be back on the ice."

The good news, if you want to call it that, is the lack of specificity around the injury or the procedure could give them the flexibility to bring Merzlikins back sometime in training camp, or around the start of the season. The fact that this happened in mid-August isn't ideal, but it's better than September.

For a team that still hasn't re-signed its best center (RFA Adam Fantilli), has a lot of drama around its top goalscorer (Kirill Marchenko), and just mended fences after trying to trade its best player (Zach Werenski), adding "potentially serious shoulder injury to its backup goaltender" is a punch in the gut.

But that's hockey, as they say, and there's only so much you can do besides accept it and implement a contingency plan. So what are the Blue Jackets' options to move forward without Merzlikins?

In all likelihood, the Blue Jackets were going to do this anyway after Greaves played 55 games for them in the 2025-26 season, posting a .908 save percentage (11th among goalies with 30-plus games) and a 16.5 Goals Saved Above Expected, according to MoneyPuck.

Although, as the Calgary Flames saw with Dustin Wolf last season, just because a goaltender has a good rookie campaign in his mid-20s, that doesn't guarantee a great follow-up. The Blue Jackets missed the playoffs with a top-10 goaltending performance from a guy who was tied for ninth in appearances.

They now don't have a serious Plan B. Maybe Greaves will play well enough that they don't need one, but last season they at least had someone backing him up that they were comfortable with.

Fortuitously, Columbus did sign Pheonix Copley on a league-minimum deal to secure a third-string option in net this summer.

He is their only other goalie of any kind of NHL quality right now, but has been getting lots of AHL starts with the Ontario Reign over the last two seasons. This is a veteran guy who has shown he can handle an NHL workload, though at his age and where he's been playing, asking him to suit up for more than one start a week might be a bit risky.

But considering the only other signed options in the organization have either been loaned to a KHL team (Sergei Ivanov), are slated for their first full season in the AHL (Evan Gardner), or spent the bulk of last year in the ECHL (Nolan Lalonde), things are a bit limited.

As it stands right now, the two paths forward are a huge workload for Greaves or a tandem with Copley.

Or they could always...

Every year, there are a handful of teams going through some level of competition at the goaltending position. Three, and sometimes even four guys are fighting for two NHL jobs. As such, Waddell may be able to find a better middle-term fix better than Copley via trade or the waiver wire.

Slight hiccup: The extra cap room teams got this summer means some clubs are totally willing to just carry three goalies; the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres are perhaps the most notable examples. But surely, someone will become available, and Columbus can't afford to mess around this season.

Unfortunately, the first 20-40 games of the 2026-27 campaign will be a referendum on where they're at as an organization. They need to prove to Werenski, and perhaps others, that they shouldn't bail on the team, request trades, or walk in free agency.

Maybe you say losing Merzlikins, whose GSAx has been in the negatives each of the last four seasons, isn't a big deal. Maybe you say Copley basically can't be worse even in a more robust role.

But this team needed basically everything to go according to plan this season, and even in mid-August, they just can't catch a break.

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